It's an odd thing to see iconic sports images as they
begin to descend toward mortal status.

Proud and brash, untouchable gladiators of their respective
cathedrals, at some point they all start to inch closer toward those that dot
the pews as some young gun eyes their spot at the center of the field.

It happens to everyone, but it's still never easy to watch
as the knot loosens on a hero's cape.

New England Patriots quarterback Tom Brady isn't to that
point, yet. He's fresh off an MVP season, his most efficient as a professional,
though now 34 he's begun to contemplate his mortality, a concept that was once
foreign to him.

He won three Super Bowls by the time he was 28, at that
point perspective wasn't even a prospect. The only thing that could inhibit him
from joining Terry Bradshaw and Joe Montana, who both have four rings, as the
most decorated NFL quarterback in history, were his own inhibitions.

But that's how a young man thinks. His joints creaking
through Gillette Stadium, the artifact of a steady stream of blows endured over
the last 11 years, he's now wiser.

Winning is hard, and at any moment it could all come to an
end. Tom Brady is, after all, just a man.

"Every time you take the field it could be your last time,
so you've got to put everything you can each week into the games," Brady said.
"This week, who knows if it's your last week? You really don't. I think that
perspective has helped me a little bit."

He simultaneously smiles and winces as the words come out of
his mouth. As a young man, he never thought that way. But being his age with
more than a decade of success in the rearview, it doesn't just put you on the
back nine in the NFL. It has you coming up the 18th fairway with an
eye on getting into the 19th to cool down.

If he's lucky and limits his damage a bit, he could fight
off the clock and maybe come back around to start another nine, but it's
something that is going to always have to be on his mind if he wants to make it
reality, which he says he does.

He laughs when asked if he ever thought about this as a young
player during the Lombardi Trophy days and admits that his knee injury in 2008, which
limited him to just one offensive series that season, forced the issue into his
mind.

He was once the hunter, the opportunist who used Drew Bledsoe's
misfortune to build his legacy. But suddenly there was an invader on his patch of
grass, nearly leading his pack to the playoffs.

Something like that breeds perspective.

"Missing a whole season, that was as hard as can be to
watch," Brady said. "But you come back with hopefully some more resiliency, a
little more mental toughness and you understand that each week you have is a
great gift."

For now, he doesn't have to worry about someone ripping that
gift away. Brady is still leading the herd of elite NFL quarterbacks, even if
young guns like Aaron Rodgers and Matt Ryan have their sights on him.

Once, though, that very thought was impossible. He and
Peyton Manning were alone as the alpha dogs. Now Manning is down with a neck
injury and his ability to return is unknown.

It was a bit of news with which Brady struggled. Until the
very day Manning went under the knife for a second neck surgery, Brady lived in
denial, refusing to believe his longtime foil could fall.